Page 170 of Cashmere Ruin

“I’m sorry.”

I blink. “Oh, that’s okay! I understand if you can’t stay. We can catch up some other time, or?—”

“I’m really sorry, April.”

“It’s fine! You shouldn’t?—”

BAM!

Pain explodes behind my head. Suddenly, everything starts spinning. “—apolo… gize… huh…?”

I fall on my back, but someone catches me.

I try desperately not to blink. It’s like the world is fading, pulsing in and out of focus. “Yu… ri…?”

It’s the last thing I see: Yuri’s eyes, hard and cold, unlike any other time I’ve seen them. Like they belong to an entirely different person.

And his face, overflowing with heartbreak.

“I’m sorry. I had no choice.”

My head swims, and the world goes black.

51

APRIL

It’s the cold that wakes me up.

I blink my bleary eyes open with effort, the back of my head pounding. “Wh…what… h-happened?” I rasp. “Where am I…?”

I try to look around. This is a place I don’t recognize. The light is dim, too dim to see properly. Which is strange, because I can hear birds outside.

What was I doing before this? I was at the penthouse. I was alone with May. Matvey had just gone to work.

Then I remember.

Iwasn’talone. Someone came by.

I let him in, but that was okay, because I knew him. Because I trusted him.

And then…

I’m sorry. I had no choice.

I scramble upright. I squint, willing my eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness around me. It’s like being in a damp hole in the ground. For a second, I wonder if I’ve been shoved into a well.

“May?” I call. “Baby, are you there?”

I feel around on the floor, but she isn’t anywhere.

Panic sets in. “My daughter,” I gasp. “Where’s my daughter?”

I try to find purchase on the wall, but when I stretch out my hand, it isn’t concrete I find.

It’s iron bars.

Not a well, then.

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